How to Design User Interfaces for Mobile Games in Figma

Table of Contents

Researching Your Main Challenges

Crossover fighting app game design by Zanjo

What if you have an idea for a game, but you’re not sure if a mobile game is the appropriate market? There are many reasons to get involved in mobile game design – and plenty of money to be made from it – but it’s also important to start researching your main challenges and consider why people like mobile games so much, and whether those values align with what you envision for your game. Let’s take a look at some of the advantages and disadvantages of mobile games.

Pros:

Portability – This one is obvious. We take our phones with us virtually everywhere, so it follows that we’re usually never far from our favorite mobile games. Accessibility of use is a clear advantage for mobile games.

Cost – Mobile games have a far lower cost barrier compared with other gaming platforms, thus lowering the financial barrier for entry to gamers and widening your potential market. 

Self Improvement through Gamification – While apps like Duolingo are not strictly games in the sense that they don’t exist primarily for pure entertainment value, they certainly are built to feel like games. While not exclusive to mobile apps, gamification has proven to be wildly popular in the app store, with hundreds if not thousands available for download on the App store and Play store. With gamification, you can experience the dopamine rush of gaming while also learning a new skill!

Researching Your Main Challenges:

Drain on battery life – As heavy mobile applications usually require certain requirements on the device’s capacity, it’s very common to have issues regarding how quick your game drains your battery. Luckily, developers and manufacturers are constantly looking for ways to fix this particular issue by pushing products that are more compatible with mobile gaming. Portable power banks provide an extra boost on the go, but some may not see this as an added inconvenience. 

Small screen size – The limitations of having smaller screens can become an issue that might affect the game play graphics-wise, as well as even having accessibility constraints when not designed correctly.

No physical game interface – The mobile gaming experience solely relies on what’s available within your screen, making it the responsibility of both UX Designers and developers that are involved in the game’s conceptualization to make the most out of the gaming experience within the constraints of the medium. 

Today, people don’t have to be at home or necessarily prone to bringing extra devices wherever they go in order to enjoy a gaming experience, and having this immediate access presents a host of opportunities for mobile games promising to deliver entertainment value.

As for UX and UI Designers, the accessibility of being able to create gamified experiences is not only a great way to extend your portfolio, as it also provides the possibility of making a considerable profit out of it without the limitations of requiring the actual expense – Remember Flappy Bird? Although this game was created by just one person over the course of a few days, it managed to garner around more than 50 million downloads, generating $50,000 a day through in-app advertising. 

Even though this number might sound low in comparison of other mobile games that might have a big studio name behind, such as League of Legends: Wild Rift or Diablo Inmortal, we have to remember the large amounts of staff involved in each company and the effect a single developer could manage to accomplish in just a couple of days. Impressive, right?

If you’ve made it this far and you’re ready to dive deeper into the world of mobile gaming, you now know the importance of researching your main challenges and you’ll want to do some research on your own and survey the competitive landscape for games that may be attracting a similar audience to your target. As you research popular games on the market, keep in mind the following questions:

  • What is it that has drawn users to that particular game? 
  • What have the designers and developers done to keep their audience happy? 
  • What are some techniques you can apply to your own work that could help to cultivate an audience of your own?

Having gathered that information, you can start to plan out your next steps. Keep in mind some common challenges you may encounter when designing for a mobile game.

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